Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beat compatriot and GM Vidit Gujrathi to reach the quarterfinals of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters 2022 online tournament.
The win in the 15th and final round of the preliminaries late on Sunday saw the 16-year-old, who defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen earlier in the sixth round, knock Gujrathi out of contention.
Praggnanandhaa will now face China’s Wei Yi in the quarterfinals.
Praggnanandhaa scored 25 points to finish fourth behind Anish Giri (Netherlands, 29 points), Carlsen (28 points) and Ding Liren (China, 25 points).
The two other Indians in the 16-player field – P Harikrishna and Gujrathi – finished outside the top eight and didn’t make it to the knockout bracket.
While the experienced Harikrishna took the ninth place with 18 points, Gujrathi (17 points) ended up 11th.
Praggnanandhaa scored an impressive win over American Abhimanyu Mishra, the world’s youngest Grandmaster, in 41 moves before drawing with another US player Sam Shankland in round 13 and 14 respectively.
In the game against Gujrathi, Praggnanandhaa capitalised on an error on the 35th move to force a win.
Praggnanandhaa defeated Dutch GM Jorden Van Foreest and Eric Hansen in the preliminary rounds. He finished with eight wins, four defeats and three draws.
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